Rubik's Cube on the Road

After dominating the Rubik’s cube competition at the county math competition last spring, St. John’s accelerated math students took their expertise on the road to teach 5th- and 6th-graders at John Paul II the tricks, strategies, and algorithm to solve the cube. Seventh graders Alex T, Jake S, Andy T, and Mike T all studied online videos on their own to start to learn and then to hone their cube-solving skills. The JPII students enjoyed watching the Rubik’s cube competition last spring and wanted to learn the cube so they could compete this spring. Alex, Jake, Andy, and Mike visited JPII and worked in small groups with 15 students, showing them the best way to start on the solution, and then what to look for and try in every subsequent step. The personal attention meant the novices could ask questions when they got stuck. The accelerated math students have expanded their interest and skills, amassing a collection of larger and odd-shaped Rubik’s cubes and figuring out how the algorithm needs to be adjusted for the varying number, shapes, and sizes of the component parts.